On a cold, wet and slippery mid-winter Friday Night at the 'G in 1988, just over 19,000 fans saw "Bartlett's babies" cause the upset of the season as the bottom-placed Tigers memorably overran the upstart reigning premiers Carlton with cub Chris Pym kicking 3 last quarter goals and Peter Wilson cartwheeling after the final siren. It would be Richmond's first win over the Blues in 5 years.

RICHMOND last night caused the upset of the season, beating last year's premier, Carlton, by 17

points in a thrilling game at the MCG. Young Tigers - many of them VFL unknowns - embraced one another and left the ground in a united, back-slapping bunch, as if it was a grand final victory.

Carlton coach Robert Walls was a disappointed man after his team had been knocked off by the wooden-spoon favorite. He described the Blues as "lazy". "They deserve the win and we deserve the loss - it's as simple as that," Walls said.

Excited Richmond coach Kevin Bartlett had no misconceptions about the result. "They worked hard for it. Tonight they showed a real commitment to the Richmond Football Club," he said.

One hero of the 15.20-110 to 12.21-93 win was unknown Richmond small man Chris Pym, who booted three goals in a dramatic last quarter.

Tiger forward Peter Wilson echoed the sentiments of jubilant Tiger fans when he turned a cartwheel on the MCG turf after the final siren, It was a great night's entertainment for the 19,458 spectators who braved the crisp winter night.

Three times in the last quarter the scores were level and it was thought that Carlton, with its greater poise and experience in tight finishes, would regain control.

But the Tigers were not to be denied their moment of glory; they smelled a boilover and chased it relentlessly.

Young rover Trent Nicholls had the audacity to try to bounce the ball in the heavy conditions before kicking his team's 12th goal and putting the Tigers five points ahead at the 24-minute mark of the final term.

The Tigers trailed by 20 points at half time, but put in a great third quarter to overhaul the sluggish Blues.

Carlton kicked the first two goals of the last quarter, but the Tigers attacked desperately, wresting back a narrow lead time and again.

The Blues were placed under a lot of pressure and were knocked off balance by their inexperienced opponents, who were playing on enthusiasm and persistence.

It obviously upset the Blues, including their most wayward son, David Rhys-Jones, who clashed with a Richmond opponent in the centre of the ground after the three-quarter time siren and was spoken to by the emergency umpire.

Weightman kicked his side's eighth goal at the 17-minute mark of the third term and the club everyone expects to collect the wooden spoon hit the lead. Unknown Tigers seemed to rise to the occasion.

Even the experience of Victorian state squad member Jim Buckley in defence could not save Carlton.

Richmond ruckman Mark Lee was shadowing Carlton's Justin Madden wherever he went, and the big Tiger put in probably his best game for the year.

In the first half Rhys-Jones looked like turning the game into a slaughter with some brilliant play at full-forward, capped off with three goals.

Walls said the Blues will train today and tomorrow but it was just normal procedure.

Of Richmond, the Blues' premiership coach said: "They were more interested in getting in and getting the ball than we were." Asked if the Blues had been complacent, Walls said: "I'd say lazy rather than complacent, and we paid the price."

BOTTOM team Richmond caused the upset of the season when it beat reigning VFL premiers Carlton by 17 points in a thrilling battle at the MCG last night.

And Tiger fans went wild.

Club officials threw the rooms open after the game and it was as though the success-starved Tiger supporters had won a premiership.

Players couldn't move and fans climbed on tables and chairs to get a better look at their young heroes.

Richmond president Neville Crowe was jubilant as he led the umpteenth rendition of the club theme song.

Tiger coach Kevin Bartlett eventually sought sanctuary in a small room off the main changing area which is used to address the players before the match and at half time.

Scrawled in giant blue letters on two blackboards which hang on the walls were the words "WINNERS". Bartlett said the players had written the message on the blackboard after the well-deserved victory.

"They worked hard for it," Bartlett said.

"Tonight they showed a real commitment to the Richmond Football Club.

"I thought we played well here against the Eagles and the worse thing we could have had was an away game.

"We played poorly against the Bears in Brisbane last week but we had 12 players who had played less than 15 games of VFL football and three blokes who had never been on a plane in their life and one who had only been as far as Sydney."

Nobody was more excited with the Tiger victory than utility player Peter Wilson. He turned a complete cartwheel in front of the players' race after the siren sounded with the scoreboard showing Richmond 15.20 (110) to Carlton 12.21 (93).

In summing up his team's performance, a disappointed Carlton coach Robert Walls said: "They deserved the win and we deserve the loss. It's as simple as that."

But while the Blues sang the blues, the Tiger joy spilled into City streets late last night as Richmond fans danced and waved and sang the club song.

THAT wasn't really Richmond which beat Carlton at the MCG on Friday night.

At least, it wasn't the Tigers we have come to know and pity recently.

Nine familiar faces with more than 900 games of experience were absent.

Jim Jess, Michael Thomson, Mark Eustice and Chris Burton were in the reserves (Jess kicked nine goals).Michael Roach, John Manton, Trevor Poole, Phil Egan and Gary Frangalas were injured. Manton and Egan probably won't play again this season; Roach may play one or two near the end.

Eight of those nine played in Richmond's first-round match against Melbourne.

Only four of Richmond's Friday night team had played more than 50 games: Dale Weightman, Mark Lee, David Palm and Michael Pickering.

They were surrounded by callow, beardless youths. Ten of them have come from the under 19s, all since 1986. Another, Brian Leys, was a Hawthorn under 19s reject.

Yet they beat Carlton. No wonder they pranced and whooped it up as if they had won a grand final.

Coach Kevin Bartlett admitted last night his task was to re-concentrate his green team on the match at hand: St Kilda at Moorabbin next Saturday.

Bartlett told them later: "It's great to win. Certainly enjoy the thrill of the win. But come Monday it's heads to the grindstone. Enjoy it, but the next game is the important one now." It is especially important because victory would lift Richmond from the foot of the ladder. It would also give the Tigers two victories in a row for the first time in more than two seasons.

Bartlett's build-up to Friday's game was unorthodox, to say the least.

After being beaten by Brisbane at Carrara the previous Sunday, Bartlett trained the Tigers lightly on Monday, thoroughly on Tuesday - and not at all for the rest of the week. On Thursday, Bartlett called players and coaching staff together for a review of the first half of the season and a preview of the second.

"We went through all our good points and our bad points," Bartlett said. "We decided that in the second half we would have to improve on our performances in the first half." Defeating the reigning premier and joint ladder leader was as good a way as any to start.

Bartlett "celebrated" by going home for a cup of tea and spent Saturday watching Richmond's under 19s play at Punt Rd.

He said he did not know how his players celebrated. Being young, very young, they probably went out.

But if you had come across a Tiger tyro around town on Friday night, would you have recognised him?

Hellenic Tiger

Other than Pym's last quarter heroics from that nite I remember a Michael Pickering goal over his shoulder at the Punt Rd end I think in the 3rd quarter. He was about 10 metres out kicked it over his shoulder so high that it brought down rain sleet and snow and just cleared the line just beyond the outstretched reach of the despairing Carlscum defenders.

It was 20 years ago today – June 17, 1988 – that Richmond pulled off one of the biggest upsets in its proud century of VFL/AFL football.

A cold, foggy Friday night at the MCG was the scene for the Tigers to stage an amazing giant-killing performance, against arch rival and reigning premier at the time, Carlton.

The Blues, under the coaching guidance of Robert Walls, had comfortably beaten Hawthorn in the 1987 Grand Final to take the league’s championship crown.In stark contrast, Richmond had slumped to the wooden spoon in ’87, with 1980 premiership coach Tony Jewell being replaced at the end of the season by five-time premiership hero Kevin Bartlett.

On a balmy summer’s evening in mid-February 1988, Bartlett’s boys had stunned the Blues with a convincing victory in their Panasonic Cup encounter.

Carlton supporters and the football experts quickly dismissed the result, claiming that it was only a pre-season night game with no real importance attached to it.

The Blues weren’t exactly shell-shocked by the hefty loss to the 1987 wooden-spooners, reaching the halfway mark of the ’88 season with nine wins out of 11 and equal top position on the ladder (very narrowly behind Hawthorn on percentage).

They confidently expected to start the second half of the season with a percentage-booster over Richmond to avenge that embarrassing loss to the Tigers four months earlier.

Given the bottom-placed Tigers were going into the game minus nine players with more than 900 games experience between them, it was no wonder the ‘Bluebaggers’ were so confident.

Richmond had Jim Jess, Michael Thomson, Mark Eustice and Chris Burton in the reserves, while Michael Roach, John Manton, Trevor Poole, Phil Egan and Gary Frangalas were all out injured. Eight of those nine played in Richmond’s opening round match that season against Melbourne.

Only four of the Tiger team that lined up against the Blues in the Round 12, 1988 encounter, had played more than 50 games – Dale Weightman, Mark Lee, Michael Pickering and David Palm.

When the reigning premiers skipped nearly five goals clear of the struggling Tigers at quarter-time, an all-too-familiar (at the time) hiding dished out by Carlton seemed a mere formality.

But in the eerie MCG light that Friday night, a strange thing happened – the Blues were unable to put their hapless opponents to the sword.

Richmond refused to concede defeat and kept coming at Carlton. Through sheer persistence, the Tigers managed to take a narrow lead into the last change. But could they hang on?

Well, a couple of quick goals by Carlton strongly suggested the last quarter would become something of a one-way street.

That’s how it turned out in the final analysis – only it was all Richmond’s way!

The Tigers clawed their way back from a 10-point deficit early in the last quarter and, when they eventually regained the lead, they went right on with the job in a thoroughly professional, mature manner to pull off the massive upset – 15.20 (110) to 12.21 (93).

It’s interesting to note that Richmond’s two best players that night were 29-year-old skipper Dale Weightman, playing his 197th game of league football, and an 18-year-old, in just his 12th senior game – Tony Free.

Weightman had 21 kicks, 12 handballs, took five marks and booted a goal, while Free, who has just been appointed to the Tigers’ Board of Directors, had 21 kicks, 6 handballs and took four marks.

The scenes in the Richmond rooms post-game were reminiscent of the Tigers’ premiership years.

It had been five years since Richmond had last beaten Carlton in a premiership match, and since then the Tigers had been regularly belted by the Blues.

Those bitter memories were all erased on this Friday night, as the Yellow and Black faithful revelled in the superb victory.

In “The Sun” newspaper the next morning, under the headline “Mighty Tiges”, Michael Davis wrote:

“RICHMOND last night caused the season’s major upset, downing top team Carlton by 17 points in a thriller at the MCG.

The Tigers trailed by 20 points at half-time, but put in a great third quarter to overcome the sluggish Blues.

Carlton kicked the first two goals of the last quarter, but the Tigers seemed to sniff a possible boilover and attacked desperately, wresting back a narrow lead time and again.

A great third quarter by Richmond put it two points clear of Carlton at three-quarter time.

The Blues were placed under a lot of pressure and were knocked off balance by their inexperienced opponents, who were playing on enthusiasm and persistence.

It obviously upset the Blues, including their most wayward son, David Rhys-Jones, who clashed with a Richmond opponent in the centre of the ground after the three-quarter time siren and was spoken to by the emergency umpire.

Richmond coach Kevin Bartlett implored his young charges to keep up the good work in the last quarter.

They rallied around him, urging each other on.

Carlton momentarily regained its composure when Bernie Evans goaled at the 23-minute mark to put the Blues back in control by three points.

But a shocking error in defence by Steve Silvagni allowed talented Richmond winger Michael Pickering to goal for the second time in the quarter and the Tigers led by two points.

Robert Walls was a worried man as he left the arena – and not without cause.

Weightman kicked his side’s eighth goal at the 17-minute mark of the third term and the club everyone expects to collect the wooden spoon hit the lead.

It was an unbelievable contest in the cold night dew.

Unknown Tigers seemed to rise to the occasion.

Had the Tigers kicked accurately early in the third term (they added 1.6 in the first 12 minutes) they could have raced away with the game.

Weightman was leading by example and David Honybun was a star at centre half-forward.

Even the experience of Victorian State squad member Jim Buckley in defence could not save Carlton.

Richmond ruckman Mark Lee was shadowing Carlton’s Justin Madden wherever he went and playing probably his best game for the year.

In the first half Rhys-Jones looked like turning the game into a slaughter with some brilliant play at full-forward, capped off with three goals.

Brian Leys in particular took over the task of minding Rhys-Jones late in the first quarter and did it admirably.”

Richmond’s injured spearhead superstar, Michael Roach, in his “Inside Football” column the following week, wrote:“FANTASTIC! How else can you describe Richmond’s victory over League titleholder Carlton at the MCG last Friday night?

The boys simply refused to be beaten by their opponents and they recorded one of the best wins I can ever remember from a Tiger side since I’ve been at the club.

Those scenes in the Richmond rooms after the game were something I won’t forget for a long time.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many supporters piled into the rooms – and that goes for finals games, including Grand Finals.

Supporters seemed to come from everywhere and it was almost as if a few of them made their way to the ground when they heard we’d hit the front late in the game . . .”